Monthly Archives: March 2018

Mr Millerman Presents “Pantomania!” It celebrates 50 years of Telford, and features Phil Butler, Philip Meeks, Ian Billings along with Ben Cupit and Katie Ann Dolling as “Queen Rat”. Enquires to The Oakengates Theatre, Telford.

The Kenneth More Theatre in Ilford is presenting “Wind In The Willows”

The production can be seen from Wednesday 11th- Saturday 14th April, with Marc Seymour as Mr Toad, and features Mathew Burcombe and Steven Day in Alan Bennett’s version of the Tales On The Riverbank by Kenneth Graham.

Marc has played Dame at the KMT for several years, and was most recently Mrs Starkey in “Peter Pan” at the theatre.

The Kenneth More Theatre has KD Theatre Productions “Wizard Of Oz” visiting for two days on Tuesday3rd and Wednesday 4th April. Performances are 7pm on Tueday and 11am and 3pm on Wednesday. This production is on a UK tour.

Easter Pantomimes are getting more popular each year- especially as Christmas seasons are getting shorter. Gone are the days when The Swansea Grand would open on Boxing Day and Close just after March 1st or longer!

Here are a few Easter Productions and tours to join the previously mentioned “Alice In Wonderland” from Anton Benson Productions, currently on tour.

Ashleigh & Sully Now On Tour!

Joe Purdy Productions has two productions on offer for Easter, and one Panto for mid Summer 2018. The first- of the panto offerings was”RAPUNZEL” at The Albert Halls, Bolton. A “One off Special” three shows in a day.

George Sampson and Olivia Birchenough joined Tam Ryan, Lee Redwood, Jade Natalie and Yvonne Patterson in this presentation.

George Sampson & Olivia Birchenough at Bolton.

The Bolton Cast of “Rapunzel”

Joe Purdy presents “Beauty & The Beast” at The Coronation Halls Ulverston from March 30th to 4th April. Cast as shown below.

In the Summer Joe Purdey returns to Bolton with “Jack And The Beanstalk” starring Anne Nolan as Fairy. It runs from 27th July to August 12th.

Touring from March 24th to the 15th April, Enchanted Entertainment presents “Beauty and The Beast” with Bobby Davro and Dani Harmer.

The tour cast includes Mark James and Andrew Fleming. It plays venues from Carlise to Yeovil, from Dunfermline to Darlington and many stops inbetween. For a full listing of the tour dates take a look at Enchanted’s web site: http://www.enchantedentertainment.co.uk

Just a couple of weeks after winning Crufts with Sully, Ashleigh Butler is on the road with an Easter Panto- “Alice In Wonderland”.

Along with Leslie Ash and Dave Benson Phillips, Ashleigh and Sully opened the tour on Friday (March 23rd) and visit a few places around the UK until April 15th in this Panto style production, presented by Anton Benson Productions.

Easter Panto is becoming more popular each year, and productions are opening or in rehearsal this week to provide entertainment for the Easter school holidays.

I visited Crufts recently, and caught up with Ashleigh, her Mum, Penny and furry friends Sully and Winter. During panto at Wycombe this year Winter was a very tiny eight week old puppy. Not any more. Here is Winter a couple of months on!

A great picture for Nation Puppy Day!

Here’s Winter and Sully back in January in “Jack & The Beanstalk”.

Sully was Small agility champion for 2018- a major win for Team Butler. We were there to see him speed through the agility courses before winning the trophy. Here’s Andrew Ryan and myself after the first round with Ashleigh.

A new Dame is launched today- Paul Merton will be Widow Twankey at Wimbledon for Qdos.

I had great fun assisting Paul with his make-up for this photo shoot a few weeks ago, and got the chance to chat panto with someone who has a great love of pantomime and Variety, and its history. It was a fun afternoon!

Paul’s pantomime roots are in Wimbledon.He saw shows there through his childhood and when he first applied to join British Actor’s Equity, he discovered that his name- Paul Martin- was already taken. He chose the name of the area he grew up in.

He found his love of comedy in The Comedy Store, Soho. In 1982 he started to make regular appearances , and still performs regularly with The Comedy Store Players.

Paul’s Television and radio career has spanned “Whose Line Is It Anyway”, “Have I Got News For You” (starting in 1990) “Paul Merton- The Series, and Paul Merton in Galton & Simpson performing scripts written originally for Tony Hancock, along with presenting “Room 101”, A South Bank Special and the long running “Just A Minute” radio show.

His fascination with variety and pantomime led him to present the documentary “Paul Merton’s Palladium Story”.

Paul is no stranger to Pantomime on Television. He has starred in four of them:

In 1998 Paul appeared in ITV’s “Jack and The Beanstalk” as The Narrator. This pantomime featured Julie Walters and Julian Clary. Dame Trott was played by Adrian Edmondson.

In early 2000 Paul appeared as The Spirit Of The Ring opposite Julian Clary as Slave of The Lamp in ITV’s “Aladdin”. Widow Twankey was Coronation Street’s John Savident.

Later in 2000 the ITV pantomime was “Cinderella”- Paul’s first time putting on the make-up and frock of The Ugly Sister opposite Ronnie Corbett. Julian Clary appeared in the Fairy Godmother role.

In 2002 Paul Merton Paul appeared in ITV’s Pantomime “Dick Whittington” playing The Captain, with Sarah The Cook played by Richard Wilson.

During our make-up session we had a great chat about the traditions of pantomime- Paul has a great love of things variety and of the history of Pantomime. It was a joy to be a small part of this transformation- launching a new Panto dame in his home theatre!